


Kokoro

by orphan_account



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Based on a Vocaloid Song, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, established Chex, grumpy teenage daughter!Carolina, implied tuckington, the song is kokoro if you couldnt tell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-04-26 03:57:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4989325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grimmons. Professor Sarge finishes his special project and has Grif lock up the lab for the night, too bad Grif presses the wrong button. Now Grif has to teach an android how to feel emotions. This is why Sarge trusts Donut more. Vocaloid AU. Modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Photographs

"Bruuggh," Grif let out a loud burp and tossed his empty can towards the trashcan, only to have it hit the rim and bounce onto the ground. He didn't bother to get out of his chair to properly put it away.

"Ugh, Grif! You're supposed to be working. Not sitting around doing nothing." Donut said as he walked into the room to check on his co-worker and adjusted the buttons on his pink lab coat. 

Grif groaned at the sound of Donut's voice and turned his swivel chair around so he wouldn't have to face the annoying brunet. He reached for the open chip bag on the nearby table and took a handful, shoving them into his mouth so he'd have an excuse not to talk to Donut.

Donut exhaled through his nose and shook his head. "And you're eating in the lab? Sarge is gonna be disappointed in you, ya' know. And again, you should be working."

Grif slowly turned his chair to once again face Donut, the younger's dark blue eyes looking a bit upset at his co-worker. "Donut, chill. I'm working, see? I'm supposed to watch Lopez, and look, here's Lopez. I'm watching him." 

Lopez, the Professor's first successful robot, walked in the room only to notice the two lab assistants staring at him and quickly walked back out of the room, not wanting anything to do with their daily stupidity.

Donut raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really." Grif replied.

"Then shouldn't you be watching him right now?"

"Uh... probably."

"Then why aren't you?'

"I'm on break. Can't you see that?'

"You're always on break, Grif."

"I like to make sure I'm well rested."

Donut walked up to Grif and tapped his paperwork on the other's head. Grif flinched but when he realized it didn't hurt he was more pissed off than anything. 

"You do realize this project is important, right?"

Grif sighed and removed Donut's arm from above his head. "What's the big deal anyway? He's only trying to make artificial life, how difficult can that be? He's already made Lopez."

"Lopez is malfunctioned, remember? The whole speech unit thing. And then Lopez 2.0 went haywire and tried to kill us. So really, this is a big deal. This time he's making something better than Lopez. You would know this if you weren't always on break."

Grif turned back around and reached for more chips, completely ignoring Donut's point to focus on food. "Well why keep trying if everything so far has failed?" Grif wondered aloud before eating the handful of chips.

Donut scratched at his scarred cheek and placed down his file next to Grif's chips. "You really don't pay attention at our meetings do you?"

The only response Donut got from Grif was a shake of his head while his mouth was full of chips. 

"Maybe it's not worth explaining to you if you didn't wanna hear it in the first place," Donut said in a serious tone,subconsciously fixing his bangs so they swooped to the side.

"You know," Grif started as he swallowed the last of the chips, "sometimes I don't know why I even took this job. I'm not smart so why am I a professor's assistant? Why are you one either? You seem more bothered about your appearance than the mysteries of life." Grif made the effort to point out Donut's scars he got from a lab explosion last year. It made him partially deaf and blind on his right side, he didn't seem too upset about it though, he was just happy to still be alive after the incident.

Donut, however, was tired of the conversation that felt like it was going nowhere and decided to leave the room, taking his file with him and not saying another word to the other assistant.

Grif scoffed and leaned back in his chair. "Why am I here? What in my life lead me to be where I am right now?"

The Hawaiian scientist sat in the seat for a few moments more before deciding to get up and leave also, leaving the mess of chips on the table. When he walked out of the room he noticed Lopez walking down the hall. Grif momentarily considered continuing his original job for the day of checking to see if Lopez was malfunctioning any further, but pushed the idea aside to deal with his own issue.

Before Grif could get to the end of the hall he heard a distinct laughter not too far away. Sarge obviously. Grif meandered towards the main lab room where he found the Professor hunched over a computer and laughing in a very 'mad scientist' type of way.

"Uh, Sarge? You, uh... doing okay?" Grif hesitantly questioned, almost hoping Donut would show up for backup but probably wouldn't considering he was half deaf and maybe didn't hear a thing.

Sarge immediately quit laughing and turned towards Grif. "Ah Grif! My favorite disappointment! I have great news!" 

The Professor quickly grabbed his red lab coat and threw it on as he walked over to his senior assistant. "I've done it."

"Done what, uh, Sir?" Grif felt more uncomfortable when the older man draped an arm around Grif's shoulder.

"I made artificial life! Better than Lopez, none of the same mistakes as Lopez 2.0, not a tank like Sheila, a physical body unlike F.I.L.S.S., all around greater than those stupid A.I.'s I failed at! It's gonna be great Grif, you'll see. It'll blow everyone's mind!" 

"Should I be scared, Sir?" Grif asked more bored than actually scared.

"No Grif, be a man. Men aren't afraid of progress. And neither is Donut but I don't know what he is. Speaking of Donut-" Sarge reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his radio.

"Hey Donut... Donut! HEY DONUT!" Sarge yelled loudly into the radio until he got a response, making Grif flinch for the second time that day.

"Huh? That you Sarge? What's up?" Donut replied over the radio. Obviously his hearing issue was getting worse.

"Donut, I got some good news. I've finished the project, we're all taking the rest of the day off!" Sarge announced in an uncharacteristically happy voice.

"Really Sir?! That's great! Should I prepare a celebration? Perhaps with wine and cheese? And maybe decorations?" Donut suggested over the radio.

"Yes! Absolutely! I'll meet you at your place for the celebrations! Grif, you're not invited." Sarge declared, briefly turning the radio off when addressing his other assistant in the room.

Grif sighed, he expected this anyway so it's not like it bothered him... much.

"Oh Grif, you wouldn't mind going to tell Lopez to shut down and locking up the lab for the night, right?"

Realizing he didn't have much of a choice, Grif immediately turned around and left the main room to hunt down Lopez. "I hate Red Lab so much." He muttered under his breath as he left.

As Grif hunted for Lopez he rubbed at the back of his neck. His dark brown hair was getting longer and it started to annoy him with how itchy it was making his neck. He pulled up the collar on his orange lab coat so it would stop his hair from touching his neck.

Grif considered where to look for Lopez. He often wasn't in his normal quarters and was usually found just wondering the halls. He didn't really have much of a purpose around the lab except for occasionally helping fix things Grif somehow managed to break without letting Sarge know. Otherwise he was just a nuisance, and with the broken speech unit he could only speak Spanish. Donut was sometimes able to translate for him, something about high school Spanish classes, but more often than not Donut either got it wrong or just plain didn't hear it what with his half-deafness and all.

As he rounded a corner Grif almost bumped into someone. "Oh geez!" He quickly shouted as he backed up a bit. With enough distance between them Grif could tell he almost bumped into his interns, Bitters and Matthews. The duo seemed to be in a rush as Bitters was jogging in place, very uncharacteristic of him, and Matthews was being fidgety and on edge.

"Oh sorry Grif." Bitters said, his short brown ponytail and orange bandanna bouncing as he jogged in place.

"Antoine, we gotta get going!" Matthews whined from his spot behind his taller partner. Every time he threw his head in the opposite direction his dirty blond curls shook with him.

"Uh, what's going on?" Grif questioned the two younger interns. 

"Donut called us up on the radio saying we're done for the day so we're trying to get home early." Bitters explained, rushing his words so he could get going with Matthews. The two were roommates so they almost always left the lab together.

Let's go, go, go! Antoine!!" Matthews interrupted. He put his hands on Bitters' back and tried pushing him, unfortunately Matthews was much shorter and weaker than the other and only managed to tire himself out.

"Dude, Matt, chill. We're going." Bitters attempted to calm his friend down, only making Matthews whine even louder.

"Well I guess I shouldn't keep you two waiting then." Grif muttered, not being able to think of anything else he could say.

"Alright, see you Monday then." Bitters said before Matthews abruptly pushed him full force down the hall. "Ah!! Damn it Matt!" Matthews grabbed the taller's wrist and pulled him around a corner where their footsteps got quieter until Grif could no longer hear them.

Grif continued to stare at the corner the pair disappeared behind for a few more moments until turning back around. He started walking again, trying not to think about how lonely he seemed compared to his two interns and their friendship. Sure him and Donut were kinda like friends but they still fought a lot. More like Donut tried to be nice and Grif just pushed him away. Bitters and Matthews may have had their own quarrels, but they weren't serious, just playful banter between two friends.

There was also Grif's sister but they fought often too. Plus she worked at Blue Lab, so Sarge didn't like it when she popped up out of nowhere. Her color blindness usually meant she would show up in Red Lab thinking it was Blue Lab until someone kicked her out or one of the blues came to get her.

Grif suddenly heard a rattle from one of the nearby rooms, which startled him. He slowly crept down the hall until he heard it again. It sounded like it was coming from Sheila's holding room. Grif never understood why Sarge insisted on keeping that giant talking tank. All she ever did was threaten to blow people up and on top of that she was a bit of a bitch. It's not like Grif wouldn't be pissy either if he was locked in a room that barely fit him without anyway of getting out except for the giant bazooka on his head, which thankfully was never loaded.

Hearing the sound again snapped Grif out of thoughts, it was definitely coming from Sheila's room. He pressed the pad next to the door to open it and was immediately confused by what he saw.

"No era yo! No yo hice nada!" Lopez shouted as the door slid open. His arms were up and he was backing away from Sheila, who was parked in the same place she was in everyday, except this time one of her panels was open and a few screwdrivers were laying on the floor.

Sheila's gun rotated to point at Grif. "Oh, uh... Hello... Grif... Lopez was just, um..." 

Grif assessed the situation and was a little embarrassed at the conclusion his mind came to. "Yeah, uh, whatever kinky robot thing going on here is none of my concern. I just came to say we're done for the day and everyone needs to shut down."

Grif continued to stand there for a moment before becoming too embarrassed and abruptly speeding out of the room. "I hate Red Lab, I hate robots, I hate my job, I hate my life." Grif told himself as he walked down the hall in a rush, a slight blush on his tan cheeks.

"I bet Blue Lab is way less weird with their alien research. Wait... didn't one of those aliens impregnate one of them a while back? Never mind screw Blue Lab. Blue Lab sucks." Grif frantically spoke to himself, thinking he was alone until the control panel next to him lit up.

"I could spy on Blue Lab if you like, Dr. Grif." 

Grif jumped and backed up to the wall behind him, gripping at his chest about where his heart was. "Geez F.I.L.S.S., don't scare me like that! I thought you turned off. And don't call me Doctor, you know I hate titles."

"My apologizes, Grif, I simply overheard you speaking of the Blue Lab and thought I could offer a hand." F.I.L.S.S. replied.

"No, no, it's fine. But I'm not Sarge, I don't care what Blue Lab is up to. Just leave them and their alien business alone. And make sure to shut down, I gotta get outta here too." Grif started to walk off down the hall again as F.I.L.S.S. began to speak.

"You know I cannot do that. I must be manually shut off in the main lab once majority power had been turned off."

Grif finally noticed how most of the lights had gone off and the only light source was from each control panel he walked by in the hall. "Ugh, alright. I gotta go there anyway to leave. Man was everyone in a rush to get outta here today."

"Did you not notice?" F.I.L.S.S. asked. "Everyone has been working non-stop for the past month to help the Professor finish his project and now that it's finally done everyone can take a break from working so diligently. Well, everyone except for you, considering you did nothing. But maybe that's because you never do anything. You don't even listen during meetings. Even Dr. Bitters pays more attention than you."

"Wow, thanks F.I.L.S.S., I feel so loved right now I just wanna cry. Excuse me for not caring as much as everyone else on this stupid project."

"I thought Dr. Donut was exaggerating when he said you didn't know anything, but my oh my do you really not know anything, especially about the Professor."

"Fine, you wanna fill me in on all the shit I've been ignoring around here? Tell me, tell me everything I haven't listened to and ignored. I'm on the edge of my seat just waiting to hear the juicy details."

"Fine then. Since you're so excited to hear it." Grif scoffed at F.I.L.S.S.'s sarcasm. He was getting tired of not knowing what was going on in his own work place. Maybe he should have been listening after all.

"The Professor had a son many years back. Sadly, his son died at a young age and the Professor was so distraught over the loss of his son that it affected his marriage so his wife left him and he was alone for a long time. Eventually he started making machines to fill the loneliness, but it became so trivial for him that he began to challenge himself, he wanted to create artificial life. Not just artificial intelligence like the failed A.I.'s but life that seemed so realistic that you couldn't tell it apart from the real thing. Finally the Professor had a breakthrough and I was created. My creation got the Professor noticed by many important scientists and thus his lab was built; albeit at the same as Dr. Church's lab and right across from it, but it was still progress. You must know what came next right Grif?"

Grif paused for a moment to try and recall what he could from the past. "Uh, about ten years ago I started working here as Sarge's first assistant right when the lab was built. That was also right after I graduated college. Lopez was built next, then Sheila, afterwards was the A.I. project, which failed, and five years ago Donut joined the team. We tried making Lopez 2.0, that failed too, there was C.C., who blew up, and then Bitters and Matthews were brought onto the team. That's it, oh, and this new project was just finished."

There was an audible sigh from F.I.L.S.S., which sounded more like a dial up tone. "That was more of a timeline of events than what I was looking for."

"Isn't that what you asked for? Geez, women. What were you looking for then?" Grif asked, irritated as he continued to walk down the hall again.

F.I.L.S.S., wishing she had someway of punching Grif, and briefly considered activating the self destruction sequence, instead deciding to explain further. "While that is what happened next, yes, you also seem to lack the understanding of how important this project is to the Professor himself. He has successfully made artificial life. He has accomplished his life's goal, this means more to him than anything in the world." 

"Oh yeah? Then how come he's probably out partying with Donut right now instead of here with his project?" Grif passed by Bitters' and Matthews' office. The door was left open and papers were scattered about. They really did leave in a hurry. He pressed the pad to lock the door and kept walking.

"He just doesn't know it yet. Odd considering he made it in the image of his son," F.I.L.S.S. said.

If Grif had a drink he'd be doing a spit take right now. Instead he stared at the nearest control panel with a look of bewilderment on his face. "What?! Pfft, how do you know that for sure?"

"I am the security program Grif. I have access to all cameras and all digital files in the Red Lab database. I know everything that happens here. I know the Professor better than anyone. I even know you better than yourself." 

"Uh-huh. Well I'm a little creeped out now, so I'd like to end this conversation." Grif said as he came to the main lab door.

"Alright, just try to pay attention to what people say from now on." F.I.L.S.S. responded.

Grif pressed the pad to open the door and walked into the room. "No promises, especially if it's about dead kids."

He noticed the closed pod against the right wall, knowing what was in it and getting a slight chill up his spine. "Never woulda guessed Sarge had a kid once." Grif spoke quietly to himself.

He walked up to the main control panel, sat in the swivel chair, and began entering his ID code to access the power controls. 

"Goodnight Grif." F.I.L.S.S spoke one last time before preparing to shut down.

"Goodnight F.I.L.S.S." Grif replied. Even though it wasn't quite officially nighttime, F.I.L.S.S. still said it every time she shut down. Usually it was past midnight when Grif was finally able to head home, but when he looked at his watch he noticed it was only a bit past seven.

He went into F.I.L.S.S.'s file and pressed the button to shut her down for the night. While he was at it he checked into Lopez and Sheila's files to make sure they had shut down too. Grif gave out a sigh of relief that everyone was finally turned off and he could go home now... right after he checked out this new file in the database.

It wasn't even hidden anywhere, simply out in the open, technically not even properly placed into the database, just floating about. It was a folder labeled 'Richard' and Grif seemed a little too curious to just ignore it. He glanced around to make sure no one was still in the lab and hesitantly opened the folder. Several other smaller folders were within, labeled 'Research', 'Reports', 'Controls', and 'Photos'. Most curious about what kinds of pictures the Professor might keep in it, Grif pressed on the 'Photos' folder.

Grif was taken aback by how many pictures there were. There had to be hundreds, if not a thousand pictures of the same blond kid. Some with a red headed woman and some with both of them. A few even had a man that looked a bit too much like Sarge, only younger. Grif started with the first one and kept switching through them, the kid couldn't have been older than six or so in the first few photos. He had green eyes and big circular glasses. Every shirt he had on was a dark red color and his hair framed the edges of his face. In Grif's opinion the kid was kinda cute. He looked really happy in most of them, except the ones where he was a baby and crying over something that he couldn't properly communicate about.

Grif smiled slightly when he came across a group of Christmas photos. The boy seemed about three years old and just opened a box with a puppy in it. Other pictures showed him hugging and playing with the young Chihuahua. He could barely make out a name on the pup's collar, but thought he was seeing things when he read it as 'Lopez'. Ignoring it, Grif flipped through the other Christmas pictures. The next ones showed the woman opening presents. A card she opened was addressed to a 'Phyllis' and she handed another woman who looked similar to her a card addressed with 'Sheila'.

Pretending he didn't notice, Grif again kept flipping until he saw a photo of the boy handing a card towards the camera. It said Dad on it, but the second D was backwards, spelling Dab instead. The next picture was of the boy and apparently his dad. Grif could tell the dad was holding the camera since it was too close to their faces and the man's arm was extended out of the shot. They both were smiling, but the next shot made Grif giggle slightly. The puppy jumped in front of them, making it look like he photobombed the two and they both looked rather surprised.

The next pictures were obviously a big time skip as it showed the boy slightly older and with a backpack on. He was standing in front of, what Grif assumed to be, the front door and the puppy seemed to full grown by now. Grif also noticed the boy had a gap between his front teeth, which was actually a missing baby tooth.

Immediately after the next pictures were a bit different. The boy was dressed in a silly dog costume that made him look similar to the Chihuahua he was walking on a leash. He had a pumpkin basket in his other hand and the red head woman was dressed like a Raggedy Ann doll behind him.

Then Grif quickly dropped the smile on his face. The next photo was a bit blurry but he could see that the Chihuahua had just bit another kid dressed like a cat. It looked like the girl's mom was starting to grab her away.

Trying to make himself feel better Grif moved on to the next set of pictures. Although they weren't much better. The boy had a small bunch of daisies in his hand and was beginning to place them on a tiny grave with a plaque above it. The name written on it made Grif get a chill up his spine.

Lopez.

Slamming his finger across the screen, Grif moved to the next group, trying to forget what he just thought of. He calmed down when he noticed the new photos were of a birthday party. There was the redhead woman, the boy, and an orange haired woman he saw earlier in the Christmas photos. The birthday cake said 'Happy 38th Birthday Sheila'. Grif assumed the man was still the one taking the pictures. There were a few photos of the orange haired woman opening presents and cards. She received some jewelry and a handwritten card from the young boy, who looked a few months older, this time with a different missing baby tooth.

Flipping through some more photos, Grif came across a group of them taken in a hospital. Getting a bad feeling from them, he hesitated before continuing to look at them. The orange haired woman was in a hospital bed with a bandanna around her head. She looked rather pale and had bags under her eyes. Balloons were tied to the bed. One of them saying 'Get Well Soon'. Another photo showed the boy bringing the woman a drawing, but Grif couldn't quite see what it was of. The next one was sort of bittersweet for Grif. The woman was in a wheelchair being pushed down the hall by the red head woman. Her bandanna was off, showing she was bald. She was smiling and held both her thumbs up. He noticed she was in a hospital gown.

Grif, hoping he was about to proved wrong with what he was thinking, only made it worse for himself. He found himself looking at another photo of the boy near a gravestone. A fake smile stuck on the boy's face. This time the name was different.

Sheila Simmons.

Grif wanted to get up and go home right then and there, but a voice in his head told him he needed to see what happened next. However, the scientist was pretty sure he knew what would eventually happen based on what F.I.L.S.S. had already told him.

The next group of photos lifted his spirits slightly. It was the boy, looking about eight now, standing in front of a machine on a table. Stuck to the edge of the table was a first place ribbon. Grif came to the conclusion it was a science experiment, although he had no idea what the machine on the table did.

Flipping through a few more he found photos of the boy at another birthday party. A girl was standing next to him with a tiara on her head. They were in a backyard with a white picket fence and a banner across it. It was hand made and read out 'Happy Birthday Katie'. The blond boy was handing a present to the dark skinned girl. She had a short black bobbed hair cut and a small red clip keeping her bangs out of her brown eyes. She also had big glasses just like the boy, who looked like he had a slight blush on his cheeks.

The next several photos were of lots of kids playing, eating cake, and giving the girl, Katie, presents. One photo showed her holding hands with two boys. One being the blond boy and another being a tan boy with strawberry blond hair. He was a bit overweight and had freckles on his cheeks. There was a name tag on his light blue shirt that said 'Charlie'. He reminded Grif of one of the interns at Blue Lab.

The photos afterward were all different shots of the three kids, Katie, Charlie, and Richard. The last one looked like they were about ten at that point. "Kid must of made friends." Grif quietly muttered to himself.

The next photo threw Grif for a loop. It was Charlie and Richard holding up a big card that said 'Hope You Get Better Soon Katie' and it had about twenty different signatures on it. "Fuck." Grif let out as he sighed.

He sat in the chair for a few minutes before deciding to continue to the next photo anyway. It showed Katie in a small hospital bed made for children. Grif was a bit worried about how she looked. Her glasses were off and she had bruises all over her face. Her hair was messy and she had bandages over her nose, an eyebrow, and parts of her arms. Grif had his own suspicions about what happened to her, ones he didn't want to believe.

He flicked through the next photos, which were all just of Charlie and Richard. Neither of them seemed as happy as before. Eventually he came across a photo of the two eating ice cream with Richard's mom. They had fake smiles plastered on their faces. In the next one it was mainly a secret shot of Richard's mom throwing away her ice cream cone. It seemed a little too zoomed in on her ass, which looked pretty nice in Grif's opinion. In the background Charlie was seen pulling on Richard's hair while Richard was grabbing at Charlie's shirt, their expressions looked like pure hatred to Grif.

Feeling slightly disappointed in the two boys, Grif continued on. He found that not a single photo after that had Charlie in it anymore. The next one that interested Grif was Richard playing soccer at what looked like a park with his dad. A painted fingernail in the way of the shot told him it was the mom taking pictures this time. Richard looked to be at least a year older by now, so about eleven. It was just shots of the two kicking the ball back and forth so Grif skipped ahead a bit. There were a few pictures of Richard in the back seat of a car holding onto the soccer ball and then some of the dad driving and apparently talking at the same time. Grif took a moment to check out the dad. He was blond and blue eyed with a mohawk and the sides of his head shaved. He also wore a pair of dog tags. Grif almost face palmed himself for taking so long to realize who the dad was. The only difference between the man and Sarge was that Sarge's hair had greyed. He didn't even look that much older than himself in the pictures. 

Grif noticed something else about the photo though. He had a good view of the left rear view mirror and spotted a car in between both lanes of the road. The next photo was Sarge turning his head to face the camera but it was too blurry, Grif also didn't see the car in the rear view mirror anymore. He tried to go to the next photo but was very confused to see a photo of himself, Donut, Lopez, and Sarge. He remembered it as the group photo they took a year before Bitters and Matthews joined them.

Feeling like he was just screwed over Grif kept flipping between the two photos to make sure he didn't miss anything. Grif let out a sound that resembled a growl and slammed his fist on the screen, it fidgeted between photos before turning to the one past the group photo. Grif cupped a hand over his mouth when he saw the picture. Another gravestone, this time the name made Grif jolt up and out of the chair.

Richard Simmons.

As Grif shot up he managed to knock the chair to the ground on accident. The wheels hit Grif's ankles, making him lose his balance. As he fell he reached toward the main control panel and grabbed at a few buttons before hitting the ground.

"Ah fuck!" Grif shouted as he sat up and rubbed his sore head. He winced when he touched the spot on his head that hit the floor the hardest.

Grif suddenly looked up when he heard the mechanical sounds of one of the doors opening. He glanced around to see which door it was until he noticed it was neither. The door to the pod started opening and Grif jumped to his feet to figure out how to shut it, or at least make it stop opening, but none of the buttons would work so he ran up to the pod to see if there was a way to shut it off, Grif froze when the doors finished opening all the way.

Inside was a younger man standing with his eyes closed. He had spiked up blond hair and round glasses. He wore a button up white shirt with a maroon sweater vest and khakis. Grif stared at him for a moment, his eyes stuck on the sleeping man.

"...Richard?" Grif managed to let out in an almost silent whisper.

His eyes opened to reveal a bright green color.


	2. Glitches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue Lab. Not the best choice, but what other choice did Grif have? Sarge would totally fire him right? Or worse...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So thanks everyone for all the nice comments! I swear this place is the nicest website ever. Your comments almost made me cry, and apparently I did make someone cry. I did not mean to do that, I apologize. Anyway, even though it's a week later than I intended, here is chapter 2. I'm actually very disappointed with myself on this one. (〒︿〒) Oh well.

Grif stood still. He was like a deer in the woods that had just heard a twig snap. His dark brown eyes were open wide and his mouth was slightly agape. The scientist didn't know how long he was standing there, too afraid to glance at his watch to check the time. His eyes were fixated on the green pair that were staring back at him with a lifeless expression.

The owner of the green eyes finally blinked, proving he was at least somewhat alive. His gaze shifted ever so slightly to break eye contact with Grif. He looked the other over thoroughly, seemingly recording every detail of the Hawaiian man. The blond noticed the way Grif’s hair framed his face, the oval shape of his eyes, his wide nose and chubby cheeks, the overall bulkiness to him that the blond could easily tell wasn't muscle, the casual way he dressed in a professional workplace, and the improper way his coat collar was popped up that made the blond want to fix it himself.

He wanted to walk towards the other man, but the blond suddenly lost control of himself and fell forward landing on his hands and knees with a light thud. Grif, finally out of his awkward trance, ran towards him and crouched down. He hesitantly placed a hand on the blond’s shoulder, noticing how cold he felt. “...Richard?” Grif managed to call out.

The blond, Richard, slumped his head down and slipped a hand under his glasses to grip at left side of his head. He heard a continuous loud high pitched sound that made his head hurt. Richard looked up monetarily only for his vision to glitch and turn off for a split second, he immediately threw his head back down.

“Hey, hey! Are you okay?” Grif asked, shaking Richard lightly.

Richard froze before looking back up, the high pitched sound briefly stopped. “What?” He questioned.

Grif didn't expect to hear such a deep voice come from the blond, he was taken aback for a moment before responding. “Are. You. Okay?”

Richard stared at him and blinked once. He furrowed his eyebrows when the glitches in his vision came back. “What does that mean?”

“What does what mean?” Grif asked, a very confused expression on his face.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes.”

“Okay what?”

“What does okay mean?”

“What does okay mean?

“Yes.”

“What do you mean what does okay mean?!”

Richard let out a sigh and adjusted the useless glasses on his face, not knowing why he even had them. Thankfully the glitches in his eyes had stopped momentarily.

“Under what context are you using the meaning of the word okay? It sounds illogical.” He said to the larger man.

Grif stared blankly at him again. “..How do you not- no, no, nevermind. I meant like, are you hurt? You fell over, so you must be, like, not well, or something, right?”

There was a moment of silence between the two as Richard tried to process this new information. His eyes looked around and briefly glanced at Grif’s hand on his shoulder. He couldn't feel anything from the touch, and didn't know he was supposed to. Storing the new information in his database, he took a moment to sift through the people registered in his memory.

“Where is Father?” Richard bluntly asked.

Grif raised an eyebrow, confused by the change of topic. “W-who?”

“Father, where is he? My database has instructions explaining what's supposed to happen when I wake up. And Father is supposed to be here for it.” Richard explained further.

Realizing that ‘Father’ was actually Sarge, Grif let out an annoyed sigh and finally stood up. He reached out a hand to Richard, who stared at his hand for a second before reaching his own out. Grif pulled him off the floor and he stumbled on his feet as he tried to get used to standing.

“See, the thing about that is,” Grif started, scratching the back of his neck as a nervous habit. “I kinda, sorta, accidentally… turned you on when I wasn't supposed to.”

The blond’s expression was blank as he stared at Grif. “Why did you do that?”

Grif half expected the other to get furious with him and demand Grif to put him back in the pod, but he was more worried about the calm demeanor Richard had about the whole thing. He drew a blank on how to respond to the blond.

“...Well, it was… it was an a accident. I didn't-didn't mean to. I fell on the floor and grabbed at a bunch of buttons. I didn't know what they do, I just pressed ‘em by mistake. I didn't intend to let you out. In fact, I’d prefer it if you could go back in. I'd get in enormous trouble with Sarge if he found out I opened that pod.”

“...Who are you?” Richard blurted out.

Annoyed with another subject change, Grif groaned and rubbed the side of his face, tired from a long day of doing absolutely nothing. “I'm Grif, Dexter Grif. And you are Richard, right?”

“Yes. How did you know?” Richard replied.

“It was in your file thingy,” Grif pointed at the main control panel, which at some point turned off, probably from the crazy amount of buttons Grif managed to smash on accident. “It had your name on it so I just assumed. You seem awfully calm about all this, ya’ know.”

“Calm?” Richard repeated, a hint of confusion in his voice.

“Oh, like, uh… not… concerned…?” Grif tried his best to explain the meaning but wasn't sure if he was right or not. The blank stare he got from Richard told him he needed further explaining.

“Okay, you seem like you don't… uh, care I guess. You don't see a problem here, or whatever.” The response Grif got from Richard’s change in facial expression told him he got it right that time.

“Then it would seem logical for me to say the same to you as well.” Richard replied.

Grif chuckled lightly before speaking again. “Oh I am anything but calm right now! On the inside I've got fear, confusion, some sadness, lots of disbelief, and the awkward paranoia that Sarge is come in any second now and be so furious he'll take me in the back storage room and let Lopez shoot me! Then there's also the fact that I really don't care anymore and just wanna go home and make myself feel better with Oreos… Plus it's possible this all may be a dream and I'll wake up in my bed any minute now with my sister yelling at me to get up.”

Grif could tell he lost Richard early on by the way his eyes bugged out slightly. “Lemme rephrase that. I am not calm. At all.”

“Where are the others?” Richard asked. His habit of changing topics without finishing the previous one was really starting to piss Grif off.

“What others?” Grif questioned.

“Donut, Bitters, and Matthews. The others that work here.” The blond explained.

“Wait, wait, wait. You know who the others are, but you have to ask me who I am?” The Hawaiian was obviously pissed off at his exclusion from whatever Richard was getting his information from.

“Well, they're in my memory files. You aren't, however. Donut is the loud one, Bitters is the lazy one, and Matthews is the quiet one. I would assume you're the annoying one.” 

“Hey, I am so not annoying! And you've got the others all wrong! Donut is annoying, Bitters is antisocial, and Matthews is a kiss-ass!”

“A… kiss-ass?”

“Yeah, he does whatever you tell him to no matter how stupid or trivial, just to get on your good side! It's not like being a kiss-ass even works. Nobody likes a kiss-ass.”

“What are you then?”

“Me? I'm the cool one. I don't play by the rules, I do what I want, when I want.”

“O...kay? What about the other two?”

“...Ugh. Okay, Bitters is like, negative, about everything. Like, a serious pessimist. Donut, he's loud, obnoxious, flamboyant, and I feel slightly uncomfortable calling him Donut. It's hard to believe that's really his last name. Plus he doesn't ever shut up, that's probably ‘cause he can't hear all that well, but man I just wish him and his fancy bangs would shut up for once. Like, why just dye the ends black? Is he trying to look goth? And the way they curve is so gravity defying. Every time he moves they bounce awkwardly. And why doesn't he get a better hearing aid if he still has trouble hearing? Shouldn't they make him be able to hear better? Does it even work? How do hearing aids work? Then there's the fact his right pinky finger is missing! Don't fix a machine by sticking your hand in something that looks like a bunny! You just loose fingers! Granted I turned it on, but Sarge should've been watching and he shouldn't have been petting the bunny! And he's always hanging out with that idiot from Blue Lab, never shutting up about him and whatnot. Like geez, just date already or something if you're gonna keep talking about him like that. He dots his I’s with hearts and it's all curly and cutesy and I can never read his reports because I can't understand his ‘cute’ handwriting! He's freaking 28 but he acts like he's more mature and smarter than me. I'm 33, I'm older, I'm smarter, I've been here longer than he has. He’s just trying to get on Sarge’s good side, what a kiss-ass little-”

Grif once again lost Richard about halfway through but the blond acted like he was still listening. It didn't seem like Grif was going to shut up any time soon so he just kept nodding while simultaneously checking other things in his database. He decided to look over his condition and figure out what the glitches he was having were. It seemed like a few systems weren't fully operational and still had a few bugs in their systems. Richard didn't have a means of repairing anything at the moment and would just have to deal with these little ‘glitches’ until he could get them taken care of. Father probably rushed things once he was close to finishing everything up. 

Searching through his other files, Richard found a group of photos. There were only ten or so. One stood out to him as a broken file. He tried to access it but his system gave him a warning about being unable to open it. He performed a system override on it and opened the broken photo. The moment he did so his entire system crashed and went into an emergency shutdown. 

Grif, who was distracted by his long rant about Donut, was reminded of Richard’s presence when the blond’s eyes went black and he fell forward. The taller immediately tried to catch him and was successful when Richard stayed leaning against Grif’s body.

“...Uh, Richard? Hey, wake up man. Are you d-dead…?” Grif shook him lightly, remembering how cold he felt. 

“Crap crap crap!! You can't be dead right? Can you even be dead? Do you even count as alive?! ...He can't be dead if he was never alive… right??” Grif frantically scrambled to catch Richard again when he accidentally loosened his grip enough for Richard’s body to start falling again. 

“I got this, I totally fuckin’ got this! I just… uh… Crap! I don't know what to do! Ruaagh!! I'm so gonna get fired for this! I can't lose my job, I've been here for ten years! What else am I gonna do with my life? ...I could always join the circus like Mom… No! No, no, no, no, no! I got this! You're gonna be fine Richard! You're gonna be fine and I'm not gonna be fired! Uhhh, what the fuck happened!?” Grif kept whining as he picked up Richard bridal style. 

He glanced at the main control panel but it must have either broken or locked down after his button mashing. He contemplated going to Lopez but his systems were hooked up to the mainframe, which already shut down and could only be turned on at the main control panel. Grif adjusted his arm to look at his watch, 8:37. Blue Lab hadn't shut down for the day yet, at least he hoped so. He was on friendly terms with Tucker, maybe he could convince his crew to help out Grif, if they even knew how to deal with robots. They did study aliens after all. 

Putting his arm back in place, Grif noticed Richard's head was laying on his shoulder, his glasses slightly knocked out of position. Grif groaned and readjusted his hold on Richard before rushing over to the main door. He pressed the pad to open the door with his foot and stepped out of the lab, pressing the pad on the other side of the door, in too much of a rush to properly lock up the lab.

Luckily Blue Lab was literally across the hall so he only needed to walk a few feet until he was in front of their lab. The door had blue lights and a bird logo on it, opposite of Red Lab’s door, which had red lights and a snake. Grif always thought the snake was stupid looking, but no one else ever complained. He kicked the door a few times and shouted at them to let him in.

“Chill, geez! I'm coming!” Grif recognized the distant voice as Tucker, the only blue he actually sort of liked other than that tall, blond, freckled guy.

The door finally slid open to reveal Dr. Tucker, who was in his teal-aqua-turquoise(?) lab coat. The dark-skinned man had short brown hair pushed back, a goatee, and light brown eyes. He seemed pretty pissed to see Grif, probably because he hated having to look up to see him. Being five foot-four really made his neck hurt with all the looking up at people. 

“What-uhhh.. whatcha got there...Grif?” Tucker asked, finally noticing the man Grif was carrying.

“Long story short: He’s a robot, android, cyborg… thing I accidentally activated and now he collapsed and I have no way of fixing him and if Sarge finds out I'm so fired, or worse, dead!!” Grif rushed to get his words out, tripping over a few of them.

Tucker glanced from Grif to Richard a few times before putting his hand over the door’s control pad. “Yeah, that's nice dude, but we got our own problems here so I can't really help you.” Tucker then pressed the door pad.

Grif quickly shoved his foot in the doorway, successfully stopping the door from closing, but also getting his foot slammed. 

“Ow! Fuck! Tucker, dude, come on! I'll so owe you, okay? Whatever you want, I'll do it, just please help me with this right now!” Grif pleaded, watching Tucker glance back into his lab before pressing the door pad again to un-slam it from Grif’s foot.

“Fine, but you owe me the biggest favor ever for this.” Tucker moved out of the way to let Grif in and closed the door behind him.

Grif had only actually been in Blue Lab a few times before now but had never gone past the main control room. Both labs were identical to each other so he assumed he already knew what it looked like other than personal decor. All the lights inside were also blue instead of red like in Red Lab.

Grif noticed a blonde woman and ginger girl in the room he recognized as Tex and Carolina, Director Church’s wife and teenage daughter. Tex had a black lab coat on with her blonde hair in a ponytail and was looking over a clipboard with unknown contents. Carolina was sitting in an office chair with her knees pulled up to her chest, her eyes fixated on her cellphone. She had a white tank top on and teal camo pants. The two looked up at him, only Carolina looked away shortly after seeing who it was.

Tex sighed and put a hand on her hip. “Ugh, Tucker what did I say about letting Red's in here?”

“Only if it has to has to do with Rock, but this seems sorta important.” Tucker replied.

“Who the hell is Rock?” Grif asked.

“Your sister, duh.”

“Dude, her name's not Rock, it's Kaikaina.”

“Huh, coulda sworn you called her Rock once.”

“You work with her and you don't know her name!?”

“Dude, I don't ask girls for their names, I just ask for their numbers.”

Carolina snorted at Tucker’s reply.

“Okay douchebags, shut up. What the hell do you want Red? And why the hell are you carrying someone?” Tex questioned, a loud crash from another room followed by angry swearing was heard shortly after.

“Okay, so he's a robot thingy Sarge made and I accidentally activated him and now he's kinda broken and if Sarge finds out he'll probably kill me!” Grif repeated quickly for Tex to hear.

She stared at him for a moment before walking out of the room. Carolina turned around to glance at Grif again then fixed her position in the chair. Grif could hear quiet talking from who he assumed was Tex, but couldn't make out any words. Tucker had moved to lean against the wall, hands in his coat pockets.

Tex quickly returned with two men following behind her. One kicking at something around the corner and yelling at it to ‘stay back’ before shutting the door on it. He had a few scrapes and bruises on him. That was Director Church, his black hair was a mess and he had bags under his green eyes. Grif remembered he had glasses, but he didn't have them on at the moment. His light blue lab coat had tears at the edges. The other man was their new guy, David Washington, whose blue eyes told that he'd seen everything and nothing else would ever phase him. He was covered in freckles and the top of his hair was blond while the back and sides were very short and black in color. His eyebrows were blond, however, and his left one had a scar vertically across it. He had dark circles under his eyes and overall didn't look like he cared about much. His coat was black with yellow pockets and buttons.

“Wait, where's Caboose?! Wash did we leave Caboose back there?!” Church shouted.

“He’s not here, so I guess.” Wash muttered.

Grif heard a very faint ‘help’ from the closed room followed by a roar. Tex sighed and walked back to the door, pressing the door pad to open it. In response Church and Wash backed away from the door with Church hiding behind Wash despite being an inch taller than the new guy. Tex disappeared into the room and all that was heard was a grunt followed by a yelp, then a whine, then quick footsteps, and finally crying before Tex had walked back out with a very tall raven haired man clinging to her arm. He had spiky hair with long strands in front of his ears, bushy eyebrows, tear filled brown eyes, three freckles on each cheek, and two buck teeth. His blue coat was a little too short for him since he was basically six feet tall. It made Grif notice how Tucker’s coat practically touched the floor and he had to roll up the sleeves because they were too long.

“Thank you so much Tex! You are a nice lady! I was so scared that Fluffy would kill me, but you came to get me! You are my hero!” Caboose cried out, a slight lisp in his speech that was probably from the buck teeth.

Tex’s only reply was swatting away Caboose’s hands from her arm.

“Okay, since no one’s dead yet, let's deal with the new issue. The… red issue.” Church groaned when he turned to looked at Grif.

“Well excuse me for trusting you guys.” Grif replied.

“How do you know we won't just steal him from you and make ones of our own, huh?” Church interrogated.

“Yeah, like those A.I.’s we took a while back!” Caboose cheerfully added.

There was a moment of silence before Church slowly turned his head to Caboose with the most pissed off face he'd had that day. “Caboose!! What. The. Fuck. Did I say about talking about the A.I.’s!?!?”

“...Uh… Not to talk about them!” Caboose said, again in a cheery voice.

“And what did you just do?!” Church yelled at the taller.

“I talked about them.” Caboose’s voice wasn't as cheery as before but he still didn't seem to understand that Church was mad. How Caboose became a researcher was beyond Grif. It probably had to do with the fact that his parents were rich people who could afford to live on the moon though.

“You… You guys stole the A.I.’s? Sarge was working on that program for months. It wasn't even finished yet!” Grif complained, not all that upset about where the A.I.’s ended up considering he wasn't even working on the program.

“We would have waited until they were done, but Caboose’s inside source was wrong and we stole them too early. This is why we don't let him do anything anymore.” Tucker explained, glaring at Caboose, who gave him a goofy grin in return.

Grif thought for a moment before deciding to take the upper hand in the situation. “If you guys help me with Richard I'll keep the A.I. thing on the down low.” He blurted out.

The Blues stared at him for a moment until Church placed an arm over his face and screamed as loud as could into his sleeve. Wash flinched and Carolina snickered.

“Ugh, fine!” Church shouted as he turned around to mess with the main control panel. A table rose from the floor and Grif briefly wondered if Red Lab had the same feature. “Put him on the table. Tex, you look at him, you have the most mechanical skills.”

Grif placed Richard on the table and Tex walked up to him, looking him over as a brief physical exam.

“So do you call him Dick?” Tucker asked to break the newly reformed ice.

“What?” Grif questioned, a confused expression on his face.

“Well, ya know. People named Richard usually go by Dick. Like that President a bunch of years ago, Dick Cheney.” Tucker explained.

Caboose and Carolina didn't seem to get it while Tex turned to stare at Tucker, Wash had to sit down with his head on the control panel, and Grif just frowned at him.

“Tucker! Dick Cheney was never a President!” Church yelled at his assistant.

“Uh, yeah he was Church.” Tucker argued. 

“Dick Cheney was a vice President in the 2000’s! He was never a President!” Church continued to shout.

“Wait, does this mean that Donald Trump’s clone is not actually the President?” Caboose asked.

“Caboose, you're six years off. Lindsay Lohan is the President now.” Tex answered, ignoring Carolina’s laughter behind her.

“For it being the 60’s now she's still damn hot.” Tucker commented, not noticing the frown on Wash’s face at his mention of hot women.

“Woah.” Tex muttered a bit too loud.

Grif frantically ran over to her. “What!? His he okay? I didn't break him did I? Is he broken? Is he alive? Dead? Does this mean Sarge is gonna kill me?!”

“Chill out Grif. He's just shut down, but the odd thing is how human he looks despite the fact that everything on the inside is mechanical. I'm gonna need to get a scan of him. Leonard, have Alpha activate the scanner for me.” Tex ordered.

Church mocked Tex’s voice as he walked over to the main control panel and pushed Wash aside so he could enter some codes into the computer. Wash, angry about being moved, got up and went to stand near Tucker.

“Wait, isn't Alpha one of the A-” Grif was cut off by the loud sound of mechanisms activating and the color of the lights in the lab changing to white.

“A.I.’s? Fuck yeah I am, and I'm the Alpha. The one in charge, so what do you need Director?” A voice, sounding exactly like Church, reverberated through the lab.

“Alpha, run a scan on, uh… What’s his name? Richard? Uh, Richard here.” Church ordered Alpha.

“You got it Director! One scan coming right up!” Grif thought Alpha sounded almost too cheerful to have Church’s voice and was a little scared by it.

“I thought the A.I.’s weren't complete. Not even the Alpha was a hundred percent finished. Half of them weren't even started on.” Grif questioned.

“Well yeah, but we figured out how to complete the ones that were started on. Most of them aren't exactly reliable, but Alpha, Delta, and Gamma are pretty useful around the lab. Wash became friends with some of them though.” Church explained, taking note of but trying to ignore Wash’s death glare at him.

“And as a big ‘fuck you’ to everyone, he made the Alpha sound exactly like himself. Egotistical bastard.’ Tex added.

“All done with the scan Director! I'll put the results on the control panel for you Allison.” Alpha announced.

“Thank you Alpha.” Tex said as she walked over to the main control panel.

Tex read the contents of the scan over and over multiple times. It had felt like a long time before she finally turned around.

“I just don't get it.” 

“Whats wrong with him?” Grif asked.

“If the Professor has been working on artificial life. That would mean it would have to be completely life-like in every aspect. So how come he looks alive on the outside, but is just a normal robot on the inside?”

“Maybe the old coot’s finally gone crazy.” Church piped in.

“No, no, no. He may act senile but he's smarter than he looks. He's sort of like Caboose.”

“I is smart!” Caboose shouted.

“Yeah, I think you might be wrong on that one Mom.” Carolina commented, a cynical grin on her face.

“I was just using Caboose as an example. Obviously no one of his intelligence can actually be smart. Way to pick those assistants Leonard.”

“Oh shut it bitch. Caboose and Tucker can be useful… In their own stupid, crazy ways.” Church replied.

“Wow thanks Church, I feel so loved and appreciated.” Tucker said sarcastically.

“Pffht. Wash is a way better assistant than both of them combined. And he never does anything!”

“At least I'm here unlike those interns.” Wash stated.

“Hey, Smith was here earlier today, he just had to leave early.” Caboose said, sounding slightly grumpy.

“Wish Palomo would actually show up. He's all like ‘I can work, I can do things, I can help!’ Then he's either getting attacked by Fluffy or just plain not here!” Tucker ranted.

“Yeah and your sister is always late and going into the wrong lab, Grif.” Church added.

“She's color blind!” Grif shouted.

“Whose what now?”

The loud group all turned to see Richard sitting up on the table, adjusting the glasses he didn't need. Grif ran up to him with a fearful expression on his face, Tex following close behind.

“Are you okay Richard? What happened? Are you broken at all? Oh man, if something's broken Sarge is gonna have my head!” Grif frantically shouted.

“Hey! Dick’s up! Hehe, bow chicka bow wow.” Tucker laughed at his own joke before Church walked over and smacked the back of his head.

“Where am I?” Richard asked, observing the lab that looked so familiar yet completely different.

“This is Blue Lab, I'm Dr. Allison Church. Grif brought you here after your systems shut down. Do you remember how that happened?” Tex addressed him.

Richard looked around the lab at all the people in the room. He already knew he didn't want anything to do with some of them, but as they weren't in his database he couldn't check any of them for safety. “My… system shut off after I tried to access some broken files. How long has it been?”

“What, like an hour or so… ish? Not that long.” Grif replied.

“Hey, do you think I could do a check on your systems? To uh, see how they're running?” Tex asked, reaching a hand out to touch Richard.

The android quickly slipped off the table and hid behind Grif, one hand gripping the taller’s sleeve and the other on his forehead. The vision glitches were back and he was starting to feel dizzy due to his sudden movements. Grif tried to turn around to check on him, but every time he moved Richard still stayed behind him, the grip on his sleeve getting tighter.

“Richard, they're not bad guys. You can trust them, well… most of them anyway.” Grif tried to comfort Richard, but it wasn't really working.

“Yeah, it's not like we'll cut you open and see what makes you tick.” Wash’s sarcastic comment earned him a glare from both Grif and Richard.

“Okay, let's all just leave him alone. He's obviously uncomfortable and nervous here.” Church said.

“You okay?” Grif asked, looking back over his shoulder.

Remembering what ‘okay’ meant, Richard gently nodded his head, but flinched when the glitches acted up.

“Uh, Director? There seems to be a security pr-”

“Not now Alpha.” Church interrupted the A.I. before he could get out what he wanted to say.

“But Director-”

“I said not now Alpha!”

“Tucker! Watch out!” Wash shouted as he tackled the smaller man to the ground. 

The next thing anyone knew gas had filled up the room, causing everyone but Richard to cough until they fainted. The blond dropped to his knees and shook Grif. When he didn't respond Richard continued to grip at the scientist’s sleeve. In the thick gas that filled the room Grif was the only thing Richard could see, even with his enhanced vision. Richard suddenly felt something grip his upper arm and yank him to his feet. He turned his head to see an armored being in a black and green helmet with an ‘x’ across it.

“You're coming with us.” Was said in a deep voice that sounded like it was manipulated.

Richard tried to yank his arm away, but the grip was too tight. He used his other arm to push the armored being away, unfortunately it was still no use. He then felt something grab his right ankle and looked down to see Grif sitting on the floor coughing.

“He's not going anywhere. If anything happens to him I’ll get fired, and I'm not losing my job!” Grif shouted through his ragged panting.

“Oh, that's too bad.” It was a different voice this time, higher pitched and more normal sounding than the previous one. The last thing Grif remembered was a flash of orange and black before being struck in the head with the butt of a shotgun.


End file.
